Lyricists have always played second fiddle to the music directors in Hindi movies. Yet, good lyricists have often drawn their own fan following. To the discerning listeners of Hindi Cine Sangeet, they have always been as important as the composer and the singer, if not more. And in the world of geets and ghazals, they have more fan following than the composers.

Yet, I was fairly surprised to find that even some of the connoisseurs of light music that I know could not even recognize the name of Madhukar Rajasthani. A few who did, correctly identified him as a writer of bhajans and were completely unaware that he has penned so many beautiful geets. That prompted me to write this post. Unfortunately, not much information on his personal life is available, except that he was born in Churu district of Rajasthan.

Madhukar, in my opinion, is the most underrated lyricist in the history of Hindi light music. One reason could be that he did not write for too many films. His first film was Bhed, with music by Mukul Roy. He did work with popular composers such as Husnlal Bhagatram, Roshan and Ram Ganguly but only occasionally. He has written for close to two dozen movies, none by a big banner.

His non-film work can be broadly divided into two broad categories (my classification): bhajans and geets. It is not just a genre classification. His bhajans are among the most popular bhajans in the history of recorded music in India, though they are identified with the singers and few know the lyricist who has penned such soulful words. On the other hand, his other songs are barely known.

That is, however, not the case with his other songs. Most of them are among the best that I have listened to – filmi or non-filmi. But few have even heard them. If anyone is interested, one can go to www.saregama.com and search for his songs. You would get some 30-odd songs. Here are some of my favourites. Each of them is an absolute gem.

1. Meri bhi ek Mumtaz thi (Manna Dey). One of my all-time favorites. In a class of its own. And if you listen, even if you are an occasional listener, you will ask: who is the poet?

25 responses to “Madhukar Rajasthani: The Song of the Unsung Poet”

Shyamanuj, so apt that you should write on music/composers/with Rafil featuring prominently.
Can’t forget your passion for this, and I am glad to see it reflected here. Very nice feature…how we do forget names, or don’t bother to remember, sometimes…

Dear Shyamanuj,
I admire your effort for giving some credit to Poor Poet who has written some of most beautiful songs — (Bhajans I a have not heard much..). You have not mentioned some of the best songs sung by Mukesh written by him for example
1. AAJ GAGAN SE CHANDA UTRA (One of best best songs written by him)
2. BAAT ADHURI RAH GAI US DIN
3. GAAUN KAHA TAK GUN MAIN TERE
Whenever I listen to his songs sung by Mana Da & Mukesh I try to search for something about this Poet but found nothing..

saint tyagi
thank for giving this valuable information for us. i am sarching 3 one song
if you have it pls shere with me.i am thank full to you…………my id is goyal.vikas07@rediffmail.com…………..i am weight for regard……….

Good to see us all remembering Madhukar Rajasthani. I have grown up listeing to all the great singers (Rafi, Talat, Manna Dey) singing geets written by him on the non-filmi section of vividbharti. I remember and have some of these songs.
Paanv padun tore shyam – Rafi
Tere Bharose hey nandlala- Rafi
Tum Aao rimjhim karte – Rafi
Sawan ki rimjhim mein thirakte – Manna Dey
Nathli se toota moti re – Manna dey

Very nice songs and lyrical and sung beautifully by these great singers. Some available at youtube as well..

Madhukar Rajasthani was extremely popular wih radio listeners in 1950s and’60s when radio Ceylon and Vividh Bharathi used to play regularly his songs sung mainly by Md. Rafi, Talat Mahmood , Manna Dey and Hemant Kumar. With the advent of TV the only artists new generation knows are RD Burman and Kishore Kumar. .What a cruel joke!. Madhukar ji belongs to the refined lyricists of Kavi Pradeep,Pt.Narendra Sharma, Kidar Sharma, and Bharat Vyas, Neeraj category. It is his good fortune that he got first class music directors and singers to give shape to his high quality songs. One cant forget songs like ” Kal teri tasveer ke sajde kiye hsin raat bhar”(Hemant da), Mera pyar mujhe louta do(Talat), Woh jo khat tune mohabbat mein likhe the mujhko(Usha Mangeshkar), Veda ki bela tumne kaha tha (Talat), Jiyenge magar muskura na sakenge (Mukesh) and scores of other songs. At that time Fayyaz Hashmi, Bharat vyas, Jan Nisar Akhtar, and many accomplished poets found radio a solid ground to reach millions of populace to elevate common musical and poetic taste to higher levels. That is why those who were young then could appreciate and understand finesse and artistic nuances of good lyrics and venerated quality writers. Today all that is gone. Education is greater today than before. But new generation fails to understand Hindi or Urdu or even Graceful English with their semantic subtleties, lyricists of our day know none of these languages and what they write doesnt rise above crude cupidity (or stupidity).
I am glad that some people are trying to restore the forgotten great personalities like Madhukar Rajasthani on internet.
—-Sharad Rajimwale

Dear Shri Sharadji, I am searching the details of life and work of lyricist Madhukar Rajasthani. I being a writer (of course in Hindi) like to write on this unsung lyricist. I would appreciate if you could provide any detail or photo or full text of his lyrics, both filmi and non filmi. My email ID is. nalinsaraf@rediffmail.com Thanks and Regards.

i am from rajasthan, and have been listening madhukarji’s writing sung by various singers, but sadly do not know where he was born and where he is today. can not some body from the family put together his biography on wikipedia?

Oh, how sweet! Listened to his songs on Goa Radio (Does anyone remember?) as a young boy. Radio anchor’s favorite he was, and Hemantda’s too! On ‘Meri Pasand’ program he’d have this combo often, also the silken voice of Talatsaa’b.
Btw, anyone an help me find Hemantda’s ‘Tajmahel ke dwar milo tum Akbar ke ek bar kabhi?

It is very unfortunate that we have to search for the superb work of these great artistes. How can we forget the gems from the poet, which are very soothing and meaningful. I am grateful to Shyamanuja Ji for remembering him.
I was searching for the music director Shri Murli Manohar Swarup Ji on internet but not much is available. Can you please share whatever you know about his work and him.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this!
I used to listen to old non film songs, on radio, on tapes, and now on CD. However there is little awareness of such music and poetry among the masses. There little known about Madhukar or Hasrat Jsipuris lives even though the latter is a well known film lyricist / shayar.

Shyamanuja helps people explore and decide on business ideas, markets and opportunities in IT, new media, open data and B2B marketing. His passions include books, music and Odia culture. This blog is a reflection of that passion.